Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Where is the soul of Malaysian society?
- Where’s Najib’s confidence coming from?
- Deciding Who To Vote For: Hung Parliament Not Necessarily Bad
| Where is the soul of Malaysian society? Posted: 28 Apr 2013 01:53 PM PDT
In our country where race-based politics dominates the ground, society is inevitably polarised. It is an irony. Politicians are supposed to unite us but they are the ones who prevent us from coming together. They divide us into ethnic groups and shore support from chest-thumping rhetoric. Ooi Kok Hin, The Malaysian Insider Anomaly: Something that deviates from what is standard, normal or expected. "Can you believe it? GE13 is one week away!" a friend proclaimed. I'm already wondering what life after GE13 looks like. Everything that happened since the night of March 8, 2008 — one long stretch of campaigning — is preparing for this moment. I was sucked into the post-political tsunami euphoria and began to read and follow the developments. Eventually I became the guy who watched the Pakatan Rakyat Convention when my peers watched the Oscars. It's weird. Once, when someone introduced himself from Gombak, I said: "Oh yeah, how's Azmin Ali (Gombak MP) doing there?" He looked at me as if I am from Mars. Lately, many people have become very opinionated about politics. Although I'm glad that people have increased their political awareness and participation, I'm worried that we have become too partisan. And there are always the two Rs which continue to haunt our society. Given the intensity of partisanship and the influx of opinions, I ponder the reason I became interested in politics in the first place. Society is a reflection of politics Aristotle ranks the study of politics as the master science because it is the ruling science which governs other sciences; meaning politics dictates what we are to do and refrain from (Nicomachean Ethics, Book I). In the "Republic", Plato describes how politics builds the ideal society. It is well-established then that politics moulds society and hence the resultant society will be a reflection of the type of politics practised. In our country where race-based politics dominates the ground, society is inevitably polarised. It is an irony. Politicians are supposed to unite us but they are the ones who prevent us from coming together. They divide us into ethnic groups and shore support from chest-thumping rhetoric. It is also a half-truth. The Sino-Malay rivalry is nowhere near intra-ethnic conflicts. There's a long history of wars and conquests among the Javanese, Minangkabaus, Bugis and various others. People who are today categorically defined as Malays were once arch-enemies. The Chinese too have fought a brutal civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, or to take a local example the clashes between secret societies Ghee Hin and Hai San. Meanwhile, the Malays and Chinese have never waged war against each other. Maybe few people appreciate the past. But in modern politics, it is clear that while race-based politics sows prejudices and hatred, it creates intense rivalries within each community rather than between the communities. Umno's fiercest opponent has never been the DAP (or even PAP). It is always the other Malay party — first PKMM/PUTERA, then Datuk Onn Jaafar's Parti Negara, Ku Li's Semangat 46 and, of course, PKR and PAS, which until recently was completely Malay-Muslim. And in every election, the DAP contests mainly against Chinese-dominated MCA/Gerakan. Should we laugh or cry? On one hand, race-based politics exaggerates the rivalries between the communities; meaning that the differences we have are actually less than trumpeted. On the other hand, the people have been deceived to hate each other for so long when we could have embraced each other two or three generations ago. Racial politics also obscured the elusive thing I been trying to find in our politics — the soul of Malaysian society. The Malaysian narrative In a system whereby politicians shore up support by selling the appeal "I am more (insert race/religion) than him", I found only the representatives of Malays, Chinese, Indians and lain-lain. There was no visible light that represents the soul of Malaysian society. Since politics is a reflection of the society, does this means that there has never been a Malaysian society? Reading Victor Purcell's excellent biography "Malaysia", I kept asking where my place is in the nation's narrative. If I were to travel to the past, the Malays would almost certainly view me the same way I see the Bangladeshi, Nepali or Myanmar workers — immigrants. My Mandarin is barely passable so I would be shunned by the majority of the Chinese. The saving grace might be the Hokkien community, but then I never considered myself Chinese so it will be hard (and awkward) to connect with them. I am not chap cheng (mixed) but I might as well be. I'm so intricately intertwined with what I consider Malaysian society around me all my life. To imagine being part of something else is like being told I'm not my parents' biological son. Thus the quest to understand our politics is also a journey to discover my identity in the Malaysian narrative. That is why my heart sinks every time I hear words like "We Malays must unite" or "We Chinese should defend our vernacular schools from the Malays." I let out a sigh. I know I am not included in the conversation. I am neither (intellectually) Chinese nor Malay but ironically it is for this reason that I believe that people like my friends and I are the best reflection of Malaysia.
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| Where’s Najib’s confidence coming from? Posted: 28 Apr 2013 01:42 PM PDT
We know of powerful vested interest groups which are desperate to ensure the opposition and SAPP's defeat. By Yong Teck Lee, FMT
While waiting for my delayed flight from Sandakan, I watched with extreme worry the BN-dominated TV news last night (Saturday) of Barisan Nasional chairman Najib Tun Razak in Kuching saying that BN can regain its 2/3 majority in Parliament. What makes Najib so confident? In fact, BN is lucky if it can remain in power. Is Najib bluffing? Or will (more) dirty tricks and secret weapons be deployed by BN-Umno this week? Is it the campaign of fear about the Philippine Sulu incursion? Why did the Defence Minister chose this week to say that there are three opposition leaders, one in Sabah, who are behind the Lahad Datu Sulu incursion on Feb 9? If the Defence Minister was sincere about not wanting to politicise the evidence about the three opposition leaders, then he should have just shut up. He should have left it to the authorities to take action against these so-called opposition leaders, that is if they truly exist. To claim that he is withholding the names of the three opposition leaders so as not to be accused of politicising the issue and yet revealing the matter at this time is a serious self-contradiction. The Defence Minister is playing politics with national security which voters must condemn through the ballot box on May 5, so that we get a new government and a new Defence Minister on May 6. We have also received reports from across Sabah of unprecedemted sums of money being distributed by BN. As early as last week, reports trickled in of RM500 being paid to voters in Likas by BN agents. In some areas, it is reported to me that voters are asked to collect BRIM vouchers but will be given cash. BN accessing private databases In Sandakan, BN agents are paying RM30 per head for people just to attend BN ceramahs. A Putatan voter was given RM100 at a BN ceramah. In Tawau, maggie mee, rice, eggs and RM50 ang pow are being delivered door to door. One cannot fathom the huge amounts of money involved in the coming week. I condemn the money politics of BN which has corrupted not only itself but also becoming a virus to the rest of society.
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| Deciding Who To Vote For: Hung Parliament Not Necessarily Bad Posted: 28 Apr 2013 01:11 PM PDT
At least hookers are consumed with satisfying their present customers first, and would solicit new ones only after they have done that. M. Bakri Musa Downstream Analysis: Hung Parliament Not Necessarily Bad (Last of Four Parts) Many fear a hung parliament as they think that would lead to chaos and uncertainty. Yes, there may be both but neither is inevitable. On the contrary I see many potentially redeeming aspects that could benefit citizens, the permanent establishment, and yes, even those politicians. For citizens, seeing these freshly-victorious politicians brazenly jockeying for positions would be both instructive and revealing. It would be quite a sight to watch them behave worse than hookers. At least hookers are consumed with satisfying their present customers first, and would solicit new ones only after they have done that. More importantly, they do both discreetly. Those politicians on the other hand would be openly and lustily auctioning themselves to the highest bidder without even a promise of satisfactory performance to their current customers – citizens who had only recently voted for them. Those politicians would whore themselves brazenly. What matters to them would only be the price their new customers would be willing to pay, regardless how filthy and disease-ridden they are. Damn the consequences, for them or the nation. The jockeying would be intense, shameless and endlessly shifting, threatening both Barisan and Pakatan. It would not be below MCA for example, to align itself with DAP and throw their weight behind Pakatan, demanding an outrageous price in return. Or MCA could demand a stiff price for remaining in Barisan. Not to be outdone, as alluded earlier, PAS could bolt Pakatan and align itself with UMNO in an ugly chauvinistic attempt at reviving Ketuanan Melayu. UMNO would sell its soul to get PAS support, and PAS in turn would readily sign a pact with the devil given the right price. There would be only one certainty; our politicians would finally be exposed for all their corruptness and hideousness. In the end unfortunately, citizens and Malaysia would be paying the terrible price. Perhaps the nation needs such a sordid spectacle to jolt it into realizing that elections have consequences, and that the politicians and leaders we have today are far different from the earlier generation that brought us merdeka. On the other hand, our politicians may well surprise us. Without being unnecessarily Pollyannaish, a few might discover that politics is after all a noble profession, and at its best and essence, a fine exercise in the art of compromise in order to get things done for the good of all. At the very least a hung parliament would prompt us to be more prudent on our voting and not be so casual with this important exercise of democracy. If that would also encourage otherwise thoughtful Malaysians to offer themselves as candidates, then the whole exercise would not have been futile. A hung parliament would also have a salutary effect on the permanent establishment. The last time there was a similar debacle, in Perak following the 2008 elections, the permanent establishment including the sultan, did not acquit themselves well. Who could forget the spectacle of the Speaker being hauled out of the Assembly desperately clinging on to his chair, or the Raja Muda, the Sultan's representative, being forced to cool his heels in an adjacent room while waiting out the mayhem? It was not pretty. The stench stained all, and stayed to this day. You can be certain that this time, with the real possibility of Barisan being toppled, members of the permanent establishment would be more circumspect for their own selfish reasons. Thus I do not expect blatant displays of partisanship as we saw in Perak. To add flavor to that, the King today, Sultan Halim, was the Sultan of Kedah when PAS took over from UMNO. Thus working with a non-UMNO chief executive would not be a novelty for him. Once we have established this fact at the federal level, all the other sultans at the state level would follow suit. They would, out of concern for their own survival, no longer be so blatantly partisan. That can only be good for them and the country. A hung parliament is nothing to fear; it is just another though less clear-cut expression of a Barisan defeat. Stated differently, a hung parliament is a not-so-pretty Pakatan victory.
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